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I hear on Coast-to-Coast AM

I was listening to Linda M. Howe on C2C last night (C2C is not an authoritative voice) somethin along the lines that the Almond growers had lobbied to get bees from Argentina brought in in coming seasons for the Almonds. Does anyone hauling in there and working with those growers know if this is true? Just from an initial look at this idea, if it is true, seems to be extremely unwise if for no other reason than to allow some new and exotic pathogens in. Is there any solid reason why bees from Argentina would fair better against your CCD than domestic and down-under stock has done?

"Things" get done in this country in one of two ways; One, money. Two, through masses or political clout. Either of which can get "things" done regardless of logic or reason.

I seriously suspect that "no" bees would be able to survive the onslaught of pests and disease' given the bees are kept in the manner they are by the commercial industry.

On the side:
C2C. I see Ian Punnett is getting some nasty reviews. I haven't listened to him since he left WGST in Atlanta years ago. He was a hoot. He was blasting away at the Masons one evening and raising a stink about everyone having to drive between a pair of obelisks of some sort in front of a temple downtown. Next thing you know there was some wakko holding himself hostage with a shotgun taped under his chin driving his pickup around the front lawn of the temple. Ahhhhh those were the days!!! LOL

Last edited by Bizzybee; 09-01-2008 at 06:28 AM.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

"Things" get done in this country in one of two ways; One, money. Two, through masses or political clout. Either of which can get "things" done regardless of logic or reason.

Now Bizz yous burn off a few fingers with the presto fire pot did we. According to the fingers I have to cypher with there be 3 things that get things done in this country. Anyhow I agree about the rest of your post

It was just a few years ago that a person, I believe from the almond board, made a very public statement in regards to the money they donate every year to the bee industry. They basically said that "If the bee industry does not get it's act together, the money would be pulled, and that it would be used directly for lobby efforts to bring bees across the border.

Bees have been kept from coming in from below the border due to AHB thus far. But how long can they hold that reason up?

Why would the brokering, shipping, use, and sale, of bees from another country make someone's eye open? It's already going on. And it amazes me the support, both from commercial but also from the bee industry as a whole, for the very people who deal and broker bees from the Aussies. Heaven forbid if anyone comments on this matter.

And whether bees survive, that a moot point. For years, the commercial industry has been on the verge of a "throw-away unit". And if the price is right, resale of these bees will peak the interest of beekeepers (large and small) who constantly shoot themselves in the foot, and contribute to their hives dying.

South of the border

Bees from the South or anywhere else have not been kept out " ...because of AHB..."; importation was prohibited to protect the health of american bees from exotic pests and diseases. The almond growers needed some additional base for bee supply and they got it, regardless of the potential impact on domestic beekeeping. Nowadays they are probably looking to expand that base.

And they will if they can not get enough bees from the US and Australia!! At the price they are willing to pay. As the price of fuel, fertilizer and chemicals go up they will find other ways to cut costs.

Money as rule?

There is a Lakota idea, seven generations, which other nations share, the idea that what is best to do is done for seven generations ahead. I guess, by nature i think this way. I ask, what will be wise for the future? I think long ago the tropical hybrid could have been developed; there is variation in temperment, some success is the southern America, but there was only an interest in Eurpoeanizing the Africans. I always thought that sounded like manifest destiny. It never had any success and perhaps at this late date a useful bee would have been developed.

Sometimes all this money making is best set aside and a wiser way found. Is that not best left to the individual? It also seems to me that California has plenty of nuts already, i speak of the tree product. Food does not grow in Safeway or the like, smaller communities, healthier food and to heck with all the import this and that, i think this would have been a better way. I don't begrudge the queen company seeking a market, someone will learn something about the tropical bee i imagine in all of this as well.

I wonder who has fresh eyes to imagine a more useful future to the keeping of bees? I doubt bigger has proven better.